Program

Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2017

All events take place in the Royal Hall at The Palace Hotel unless
otherwise indicated.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

16:00–18:00

Registration Reception
Location: Alexandra Gardens / State Hall foyer

Monday, April 3, 2017

08:30–09:00

Registration

09:00–09:10

Opening Remarks

09:10–10:10

Session 1: Opening KeynoteSession Chair: Aggelos Kiayias

Silvio MicaliMassachusetts Institute of Technology

ALGORAND: A New Public Ledger

A public ledger is a tamperproof sequence of data that can
be read and augmented by everyone. Shared public ledgers
stand to revolutionize the way a democratic society operates. They
secure all kinds of traditional transactions—such as payments,
asset transfers, titling—in the exact order in which they occur;
and enable totally new transactions—such as cryptocurrencies and
smart contracts. They can remove intermediaries and usher in a new
paradigm for trust. As currently implemented, however, public ledgers
cannot achieve their enormous potential.

Algorand is a quite alternative, truly democratic, and
very efficient way to implement a public ledger. Unlike prior
implementations based on proof of work, it requires a
negligible amount of computation, and generates a transaction history
that will not "fork" with overwhelmingly high probability.

Fiat currencies around the world are beginning to transition to a
purely digital form. One need look no further than Venezeula's move
to demonetize their 100 bolivar bill; or India's 500 and 1000 rupee
note demonetization. These are both clear signals that fiat currency
is about to mean something very different in the coming decade. With
a purely digital fiat currency, governments expect to expose black
market monetary stockpiles, increase the number of participants in the
banking system, and improve fiscal efficiency. There will of course
be unintended side effects. As money ceases to have any form but ones
and zeroes, the role of the security services providers guaranteeing
the safe transmission of money around the world is going to
increase.

As currency is transmitted in the black box form of secure
encrypted tokens, will security guarantors step into the role of
monetary authorities?

Note: the timing of the lunch and breaks is coordinated among
all of the workshops, but some workshops might start earlier in the
morning or end later in the afternoon. See their individual programs
for details. Workshop registrants can attend any of the workshops and
can switch between them as desired.